Saturday, November 29, 2008

Ben's First Roadtrip!

My parents, Benjamin and I left on Friday (11/21) afternoon. We drove about 5 hours the first night, and stopped in Portage, WI. Ben did well, only getting fussy in the evening when we were all ready to quit for the night anyway.

Saturday morning, after a stop at Cracker Barrel for pancakes, we got on the road again. We drove south through the length of Illinois, and stopped our second night in Paducah, KY. The highlight of my day was a stop at Bob Evans for supper. No, I take that back. The highlight was the big grins that my boy started giving me on a regular basis.

Sunday morning we left Kentucky and headed through Tennessee, and into Georgia. We were passing through Nashville just in time to get briefly caught in the traffic from the Titans football game. Finally, about 1200 miles later, we arrived in Augusta and met Dave at the motel where my parents were staying. After they were settled in, and we were all fed, we went to Dave's apartment, where Ben and I stayed.

Monday morning, Ben and I went to Fort Gordon with Dave, so that I could get a new ID card. Once that was done, I went back to my parent's motel room. Our big adventures on Monday included a trip to WalMart, and then TV and naps for everybody. But it felt good to not have to drive.

Tuesday, while Dave was in class, we decided to go to the Waffle House for pecan waffles, and then we thought we'd go and walk along the Riverwalk. Do you think I could find a website that gave driving directions to get to the Riverwalk area? Nope. So, armed with a general idea of where we needed to go, and the map from the phone book, we headed out. After a few wrong turns and unplanned trips to South Carolina, we made it to the Riverwalk. It was a little windy and chilly, so I made sure that Ben was as snug in the front pack as I could. We walked 1.8 miles, and also walked through the cemetery at St Paul's church. After that, we realized we were fairly close to the farmer's market, so we decided to find it and see about buying pecans. Well, it was not in South Carolina, no matter how many times we went there by mistake, so eventually we got turned around and on the right road, and found the market. Between my mom and I, we bought about 30 lbs of shelled and unshelled pecans. (Mmmm... I can hardly wait to start Christmas baking now!) We also checked out a few thrift stores in the area before heading back to the motel for... tv and naps.

Wednesday, my parents packed up at the motel, and I packed up at the apartment, and we headed to Fort Gordon so that Dave could show off Ben, and then have lunch together in the mess hall. It turned out that they were serving Thanksgiving dinner, and it was very good. But, no naps for any of us after our turkey, because Dave went back to class, and we drove the four hours to North Myrtle Beach, SC. Dave had found us a deal on a 3-bedroom condo, right on the beach. We relaxed and rested, and Dave was able to join us several hours later.

Thanksgiving Thursday! Even though there are Waffle Houses on every block in Augusta, we looked and couldn't find one. So we went to another pancake house, and had a lovely breakfast. We bundled Benjamin into the front pack, and took a three mile walk along the beach. We ate a quick but yummy supper, and then went to The Alabama Theater to see their Christmas show. It was really fun, the singers and dancers were very talented. Ben liked the lights and did really well through the show.

Friday, we headed an hour up the road to Wilmington, NC to see the battleship North Carolina. We spent most of the day there, and then headed back to North Myrtle Beach for ice cream. Then Grandma & Grandpa babysat so that Dave & I could go out for dinner together.

Today we went to Dixie Stampede, and then stopped at Bass Pro Shops on our way back to the condo. And tonight Ben took a nap on Grandma's lap while Dave & I visited the hot tub.

Tomorrow we'll say goodbye to Dave and start our trip home. It's been really fun and of course gone much too fast. When I look at my photos from the trip, it seems to me that I have a picture of the sunrise and a picture of the ship, and about 300 pictures of Benjamin. Oh well, he was one of my favorite things to see every day, anyway.